Historical Markers, Interpretive Signs

I stood in the same spot. If memory serves me the headstone was stolen a total of three times. In 1904 the nearby Pecos River flooded and washed away the wooden headstones. A decision was made to erect a headstone in memory of BTK but no one knows for sure where he's actually buried.

I'll never go back to Texas :eek1, without an air conditioning unit strapped to my Jesses. yeaks...how do those people take it?:eek1

No it was a cemetery with 4 or 5 other people buried in the block walled cemetery. Have a feeling that most did not want to be buried with such a shady character. Probably could not find anyone brave enough to dig the grave in that heat.

BtKid is a local hero. The BtKid museum in Fort Sumner was old and rundown but some most impressive artifacts.

BTW, part of Billy's resume was stealing cattle from Chisholm's ranch. Of course it was not that way in the John Wayne movies.

Texas, how do those people live?

They come up to Colorado and fill the state parks with their RV's all summer. Not that I blame them.

Books

For those of you who want to learn more about Billy the Kid, here is a alphabetical list of books I recommend and are a part of my personal library (I placed an asterisk* next to those that are a must read):

Lieutenant Colonel N.A.M. Dudley Court of Inquiry By Robert M. Barron (this book is self-published, if you're interested contact Donna Tatting)


Robert M. Barron was my father and Donna Tatting is my sister.

Bob... Very special. Never knew about this. It reminds of the Hastings Mine Disaster (121 men lost) I came upon while exploring approaches to Cordova Pass from the east....

Ms SuzieQ:

Next time I know to leave my Coleman stove at home. I could just cook my eggs on the top of my bald head.

Texas does have some amazing cattle ranches....but I'll save those for winter riding.

http://www.veskimo.com

The best thing, short of AC on the bike... [/QUOTE]

Any idea where Dick Broadwell is buried?

Thank you. Somehow I knew that you would know.

Lewis and Clark reached the mouth of the Missouri River in July of 1805. Not knowing this was the mouth of the Missouri they were faced with the merging of three river. If the Missouri reached the Pacific Ocean (the Northwest Passage) it "had" to be one of these 3 rivers. Seeing the tall mountains in the distance L and C both had concluded that there was probably not going to be a NW Passage.

They simply wanted to travel as far as possible via water (with 4 to 5 thousand pounds of cargo). They had to make a guess as to which river was the Missouri River, that was headed west. Clark stood on the below rock looking west and simply guessed which of the three rivers went west.



The rock ledge on the right of pic is where Clark stood: You can see the marker at the top of the ledge in the distance.


You can walk to the "Clark Overlook" and see exactly what Clark saw:


Three rivers all flowing in different directions:



Clark choose the correct river traveling the furthest to the west.

They finally ran out of navigable water near today's Dillon, Montana. And up Lemhi Pass on foot and horseback they find the literal end of the Missouri River about 4 miles up Lemhi Pass Road the mighty Missouri is a tiny stream. (The mouth of the Missouri River).

You strike me as a guy borne in the wrong century. I'd bet you had rather be mounted on a horse, carrying a six-shooter, headed across a prairie.

LC... Great stuff on the three rivers. I remember reading about the challenge of the choice. Trying to recall, didn't they divide here and either Lewis or Clark went north following one of the rivers to confirm it wasn't the right one?

Great image of the Missouri where one can jump across it. Is possible to do the same in Colorado, jumping across the Rio Grande, Arkansas, Colorado, and the North/South Plattes where they are a mere three feet across.

Accidentally found this marker several yrs ago...had to use film camera, so pretty crappy pictures. It was truly amazing to stand on these grounds. Extremely remote location.

Camp Disappointment marker:


Location: (14 miles from Canadian border, in Montana)


Past Cutbank heading to Browning Montana I see a speck in the distance. Almost dead center of the picture. I know I am on a Blackfoot reservation but decided to check out the speck. For the record, during L & C adventure all Indians they encountered feared the Blackfeet. To this day, a number of Blackfeet websites show a dislike for the L & C Expedition. BTW, David Letterman's big ranch is just south of this marker about 40 miles.



On the return journal home Lewis, chose his most important skilled soldiers. Brave, fearless, marksmen, you name it, to join him on this trip. They were Drouillard, Joseph and brother Rubin Field. As mentioned earlier, no mention of Seaman.

Their mission was to confirm there was no Northwest Passage around the northern side of the rockies, and second, to find the northern most head waters of the Missouri River...which included streams, creeks, etc that flowed into the Missouri...these were the rules France (via Napolean) gave Thomas Jefferson on the purchase of all lands in the Louisiana Purchase Territory...all land with waters running into the Mississippi, and the Marias River runs into the Missouri River, and the Missouri runs into the Mississippi. Napolean really screwed up, and Lewis' efforts at this site changed the United States territory forever.

At this site, Lewis determined that there could not be a NW Passage (thus he called this campsite Camp Disappointment. But more importantly he did document the latitude and longitude of the most northern creek that was running south into the Missouri about 150 miles away. Documenting these coordinates established the USA's northern border with Canada.

Long story short...leaving here the four men headed south back to the Missouri to regroup with Clark (at Reunion Bay in North Dakota) and the remainder of the party. Only a few miles away they camped and that's the story of where Fields and Lewis killed two Blackfoot Indian teenagers.

Standing by the Camp Disappointment marker. Today this marker is used for target practice.



Closeup of Camp Disappointment marker. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of bullet holes in the monument...by you know who.



Standing at the marker you can see Glacier National Park in the distance and to the north you are looking into Canada. If you ever go to Glacier or Browning, MT the above marker is probably 25 miles from the East entrance of Glacier Park.



Sign beside the marker:




Text of the Camp Disappointment marker:



Site where Rubin Field stabbed the Blackfoot teen to death, and Lewis took care of the other teen when he shot at Lewis. Lewis' famous comment in his journal was, "I could feel the wind of the Indian's bullet pass my ear". (The actual site is between two forks of the Medicine River.)



Knowing two of the three teens were dead, and probably several hundred Blackfeet lived 20 miles away and one teen escaped in the darkness (and was probably headed home), they decide to "haul ass" back to the Missouri River. Running at full gallop through the night and in to mid day of the next day they met back up with their boat and headed for North Dakota (place called Reunion Bay).

Some humor in the event: A few days before the above events, Lewis wrote how exhausted their horses were. Joseph Field shot a deer in the distance and his horse laid down and would not get up for him to retrieve the kill, due to the horse being so exhausted. In 1806 there were not roads here so they had been on horseback thru these up and down gullies for a week and all their horses were exhausted. As I rode thru the territory I can see why the horses were exhausted. (see above picture of the rolling hills).

Wrong river:

North of Great Falls, they ran into the junction of the Marias and Missouri River and did not know which fork to take. They divided up, with Lewis going up the Marias (named after his girlfriend) River. and Clark and his platoon headed down the Missouri to the 5 giant water falls. Took like 10 days of scouting to finally guess which was the Missouri. They guessed right. The Marias would have taken them to Cutbank and in to Canada. when they saw the "great falls" they knew they were on the right river. The Indians had told them in NDakota that they would run into a huge water fall on the Missouri River.

Three Forks is where the Missouri basically ended into 3 big creeks. (Jefferson, Galladin, and Missouri Rivers). Basically the end of water and Lewis (Drouillard, and the Field boys) left the Expedition to persue their month long search for horses west of today's Dillon, MT/Lemhi Pass.

Ahhhh thanks. And more great images bringing to visual life what I've read about.

BTW, may want to keep an eye on this thread... http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=803950

While Dr. Greg is writing an account of a trip already taken, you might note with interest his observations and/or have some input here and there as the report unfolds.

... and Motorcycles.

Modern Dentistry is over rated

I've often though I was born in the wrong century. But I stop and thing about my ancestors and realize I would have just been a dirt farmer anyway. Not that that's bad, but I wouldn't have gotten to see as much country as I have by being born now. I guess great grand pappy was ranch hand on a good sized ranch in eastern Colorado.

Sorry no picture, I'll see if I can grab one tomorrow, it's been awfully hot here.

Every time I ride the Big Thompson Canyon east of Estes Park, I always think about what happened there July 31st, 1976...

Short ride yesterday morning before "The Big Sweat."

I've traveled in the Scarboro area and loved it. These are from my wanderings north of Tallahassee, near the Georgia border and south of Thomasville. This was plantation country before the unpleasantness between the north and south.